Egypt forward Mohamed Salah fit to face Russian Federation

17 June 2018

But the 25-year-old was named on the bench and forced to watch on as Jose Gimenez scored late on.

Tabarez praised his side's performance while calling on them to improve in their next game against Saudi Arabia. "I have seen many great players like [Lionel] Messi and [Diego] Maradona not living up to their potential in matches".

Russian Federation and Uruguay come at the top of Group A as both garnered three points so far while Egypt and Saudi Arabia have none.

Jose Gimenez was the unlikely 89th-minute match victor as Uruguay defeated an Egypt side shorn of star man Mohamed Salah 1-0 in their World Cup opener on Friday.

Salah won the English Premier League Golden Boot Award after scoring 34 goals last season and capped a glorious season at Liverpool with Player of the Season award.

He is yet to make full recovery and was not risked by coach Hector Cuper in the 1-0 defeat to Uruguay yesterday. "But I think he will be OK for the next match".

Uruguay stars Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani wasted their chances. But Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed El Shennawy stopped Suarez on both occasions. "Yesterday we were quite certain during that training session he would play".

Ryan Pierse
JUNE 15 Mohamed Elshenawy of Egypt makes a save against Uruguay

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Portugal sailed through the qualifiers, winning nine of their 10 games, but their long unbeaten run ended in March and they drew their next two matches before recovering to win a final warmup friendly with Algeria last week. "I can nearly assure you 100 percent he'll play", Cuper said in the pre-match press conference.

"Perhaps if Mo had been on the pitch, the outcome would have been different but we can't know that", Cuper told reporters. Adding, "Because off-the-field bitings are always tasty".

Cavani and Suarez didn't receive the support they needed and at times dropped back to midfield as playmakers, not a role for a duo that has combined for 93 worldwide goals.

"We can confirm that 32 278 tickets have been allocated for the match between Egypt and Uruguay in Yekaterinburg".

Anything but a win against Saudi Arabia on Wednesday would be a surprise.